Spreading risk: get leads and revenue from multiple marketing channels

Marketing has many channels to reach prospects and customers. In B2B these are often: one's own network, referrals (word of mouth), trade shows, trade media. Online, there are many channels: social media such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, TikTok, Linkedin, digital newsletters, Google Ads, Google organic, and many more. Which channel works best? Capacity and budgets have limits and so companies make choices. Chances are, there is a strong commitment to one channel that fits the company well and generates a lot of leads, revenue and traffic (visitors). An international trade show, for example, or the DGA's network. Or a website that ranks high in search engines thanks to SEO. However successful, there are serious risks involved. Due to a pandemic, the trade fair is cancelled. The DGA drops out and with him/her access to his/her network. A Google update melts away the top spot. That's why Tasmanic advocates risk spreading. You can read how that works in this article.

Oops, account blocked

It may go well for quite a while. But it's important to realize that you have limited control online. You yourself are not an owner, just a user. And that poses risks. Social media accounts are increasingly being hacked, and social media itself regularly intervenes. Instagram blocks entire (business) accounts without notice, to which the owners no longer have access.

Facebook and Google are de facto monopolists that you can never really compete with as a Dutch company. You are lucky if they respond to support requests, even if you feel you are spending hefty budgets. That is not a relationship you can build on. For example, they can proceed to block an account if advertising rules have been violated, or if the user is seen as a spammer or bot.

This happens frequently...

Suppose a company has a growing Instagram account where most of its customers come from. It makes sense then to spend all its online marketing budget on this. Everything seems to be going for the wind. But then the Instagram account is suddenly deleted... Another example: a company has a website that generates a lot of revenue through organic Google search results. Google implements an update, causing half the search traffic to the website to disappear: significant loss of revenue. These are not hypothetical examples; this happens regularly. They show how vulnerable a business can be when all leads come from one marketing channel.

No help from platforms

When rules are violated, it is obvious why an account is deleted. But it also often happens without an identifiable cause. Some administrators don't get their accounts back at all, because social media is virtually inaccessible and does little to find a solution. All that is left is to create a new account and rebuild it. A big deal when much of the company's revenue was due to that.

The risk of Google updates

But what about a Web site, which a company has developed and also manages itself? That seems like a safe option, but it is not. Google has a 94% market share in the Netherlands. If you want to attract visitors to your website who are actively searching themselves, you can't avoid Google. Whether it is advertising or through SEO. Google makes regular updates that change the search engine's algorithm. This can have a major impact on a website's rankings in Google. A negative impact can lead to substantial loss of sales. For example, the Penguin update in 2012 led to major damage for many SMEs. Broadly speaking, this also applies to other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo but will have a much smaller impact due to their small market share.

The importance of diversification

The above shows how vulnerable companies are when they get their traffic, leads and revenue from one channel. The success of that one channel can suddenly be over and then they are left empty-handed. This is why diversification is essential. Invest in different online as well as offline channels to spread the risks. If one channel fails for whatever reason, there are plenty of other avenues to come into the picture, making you less dependent on monopolists such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook/Meta. Lees hier meer over leadgeneratie en het belang daarvan.

Investing in diversification

Investing in diversification: how does it work?

1. Understand which channels are currently being used and how much they contribute to the bottom line.
2. List channels that could be of interest.
   Look at overall reach and reach with current target audience. De-duplicate for channels from the same company. If you already use Google, Youtube is not a new channel. The same goes for Instagram and Facebook.
3. Each year (or six months), choose x number of additional channels you will test. Set clear goals, but keep in mind that adding an additional channel is valuable anyway.
4. Make sure you take ownership of potential customer's contact information. For example, by having them subscribe to a newsletter. This allows you to approach them directly without interference from any other party.